Since the late-nineteenth century the use of, and uses for, electricity has increased tremendously, becoming a fundamental part of everyday life for most people. One only has to look at remote parts of the world to see how drastically different life is without electricity. Most electric devices in use today typically draw between a few milliwatts to several megawatts of power, depending on the application. Higher costs for the fuels needed to generate electricity, and a higher electrical demand in general, however, have led to increased electricity costs, thereby increasing the attractiveness of alternative power sources.
One typical use of electricity is a light emitting diode (LED). LEDs have seen increasing popularity in recent times due to a lower per unit cost and a greater number of available colors. LEDs are more energy efficient (i.e., less power is consumed) and generally have a much longer life expectancy than conventional filament-based light bulbs. In general, LEDs draw approximately 20 mA at 2V (i.e., 40 mW) when illuminated, which is far less than conventional light bulbs.
Distribution of electricity from a generation plant to the end-user is not a trivial problem. Thousands of miles of wires and cables creating a transmission network are involved in delivering power to consumers. The transmission network adds costs such as material costs and the cost of lost energy due to the resistance of the transmission wires. For the average consumer of electricity, the transmission costs generally equal the cost of the electricity itself. Furthermore, portions of the world have no electricity because it is simply too far from the nearest transmission line or the terrain itself prohibits installation of transmission lines.